Raspberry Pi I2S to SPDIF Hat

Hi Michael,

Sounds good!

Have you talked to the piCorePlayer guys about the patch? I could let them know about it...

@Vastx Ok re:AES, different cable though (brand/quality)? Are you using blue jeans digital cables?

 

@Vastx I really do not trust volumio only for the testing (not Michaels driver) They are still working on it. Around the forums people are talking about large differences in sound based on the linux kernel (certain rev's are probably broken) etc... also I have that RC1 running ready to test, ssh'ing in watching the CPU it's all over the place with multiple processes. piCorePlayer is practically idle at 98% while playing 24/96! I'll try to do some A/Bing between the two.

 

I had myself a little test with the digi+raspberry vs my Daphile music server with a Xonar feeding my Anthem receiver. I perceived the Xonar as q a bit better detailed and more open sounding and the Digi+ quite a bit smoother. Have you tried something like that yet?

@Michael Kelly. When will this be available to buy? I think you should also send a verion to Hans Beekhuyzen. He seems to be rather fond of testing the little Pi's

 

@Vastx, @Michael Kelly, and anyone interested:

Check this out, it's an i2s FPGA FIFO reclocker board, they claim and measure 3ps jitter on i2s--

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/294940-new-fifo-buffer-rpi-sbcs.html

They are sending out a few test boards, and I'll be getting one (along with their Dac)

Was checking it out for potential use with the SPD2: this board sandwiches between the PI & SPD2 (maybe)

 

It appears to bring in the I2S using the Pi (crappy) clocks, then send them out via a better clock. This is also called an ASRC (Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter). Very desirable if you are sending the Pi I2S to another device. In the case of the SPD2, we are the master using very high quality clocks, thus no need for this device. Plus it works int eh opposite direction!

Cheers,
Michael

 

C'est la vie oh well!

bet it would "work" on your boards PLL mode... but yeah, no Edit: eerrr, that's master mode also.

 

Could come in handy for feeding I2S to the Soerkris DAC. All implementations that I have seen so far feed the DAC with either SPDIF or use some sort of XMOS. Haven't seen anyone yet try to use the I2S directly from the RPi to the DAC.

 

Yeah, it's definitely cool, measuring at 3ps-- they're also sending their PCM5142 DAC to test with it.

Too bad Schiit doesn't have an optional i2s input instead of the USB input board! (Honestly wish you could order the gum/Yggdrasil *without* the usb board)

 

You could before but I guess you missed out. Basically the majority of people were adding USB so they just made it standard and lowered the price with USB by $50. At most you would be saving $50.

The problem with I2S is that there is no standardized connection. I mean what are they suppose to use? RJ45? Ribbon cables?

 

True, really meant to be short traces on a board! (not friggin' overpriced hdmi cables etc. )

 

Have anyone here tried the Aqvox linear supply yet?

 

Since here don't have any photos, i wan to ask is the AES/EBU connector on hat male or female?

 

The hat info, including a 3D rendering is on our site at:
www.pi2design.com/coming-soon

BTW, it's a female XLR.

Cheers,
Michael

 

@Michael Kelly

Awesome,

FYI: it still says 50ohms for each COAX & XLR

Why not add this to the list: 4-Layer PCB with filtered ground from Pi

 

All fixed. Thanks for the suggestion!

Cheers,
Michael

 

I'm looking forward to get this. Is this actually a BNC out like in the pictures?
Will there be a RCA version? 2x RCA would be quite handy.

 

It is and we do have a BNC to RCA adapter. Dual RCA is interesting. Same stream on both, right? I'd just have to buffer the output to drive two cables. Hmm.

Cheers,
Michael

 

I've used the Hifiberry Digi+ recently and the digital RCA out is very slightly better than the optical out so I'd simply skip the optical for a second RCA. Most DACs can use digital RCA in.

If it's not too much trouble it would be cool have both versions availabe and be able to use it without adapters.

 

Having retread the entire again over the weekend, I am interested to know if there are difference between using the 503DAC1 or the Speed 2? @Vastx pointed out that the 503DAC1 seems pretty resistant to PSU changes How does the Speed2 fare in this regards, even theoretically?

 

Even more resistant! As I said earlier it can do quite well even with lesser PSUs.